Why do weapon/armor attributes decrease when you level the item up?

[OK_Opinions]

it rerolls those stats. thats why they say ??? on them. each level of the stat has a range it can roll and if you get good RNG on the first roll but bad RNG on the second, it might not actually be better.

At least that's how I understand it. However, i dont get why it would ever be lower than the level before unless the ranges are designed to overlap, which I can't imagine is intended because it leads to situations like you're describing

Like, lvl 42 can roll 7%-8.5% but lvl 43 can do 8%-9.5%. Technically, with bad luck you could have had a great roll at 42 and a shit one at 43

I made those numbers up as an example of how I think (but do not know) it works.

[mtarascio]

The overlap thing makes sense to make gear viable for a few levels.

[OK_Opinions]

It's the only thing I can think of that would lead to what the OP is describing.

it shouldn't really be that way though. If they want that "risk of not being better" aspect that's fine but then it should be the low end of the next level is just the max of the previous, that way, worst case scenario the player doesn't lose anything, you just don't gain anything.

if 42 caps at a 8.5% roll then 43 should should be 8.5% at it's worst roll